Crazy April

First off I want to remind you all that you can go to this site: http://brandonelizaelmer.shutterfly.com to see every and all pictures from our life including from our recent trips.

Now onto April! In the start of April I was offered a new position at work. I had interviewed for it a few weeks before but found out that I had gotten it. I still work for Intuit in the QuickBase software division but now instead of selling it I am doing tech support for it. I love learning new things about the product and it helps my needing to not do the same thing each day. I guess I am a bit ADD that way. I get bored when it's the same thing each day. I like new challenges. So that is very exciting!

Next was Ethan's 9 month appointment. He has tubes put in his ears in March and is doing great after that. Here are his 9 month stats:

29 inches tall

19 lbs 8 oz.

His head circumference is 46.6 cm

Up until a week or so ago he was just doing his combat/army crawl. Now he does that but all a "real" crawl. He is climbing all over everything! We really have to watch him. Yesterday he learned that he can climb onto Annie's bed, although he gets off head first. He also cruises anywhere he can. He will walk holding onto anything. He does have a Playschool Walk and Ride toy that when it's in the walking position he will walk behind it everywhere in the house he can. He is still a super happy boy and so much fun. He loves to make faces that make us laugh.

Annie is doing much of the same! She loves anything girly, artisy, and princess. She just finished her class at the Pleasant Grove Rec Center-she was going to a toddler class once a week since the start of the year. It will start up again in the fall. For the summer she would like to take some swim classes so we will be looking into that. She has has been working with a Speech teacher at the local elementary school on some of her speech. While the teach notes that her structure is advanced there are some sounds she should be pronouncing better at this age. It might be due to her hearing and not hearing how they should have been said that contributed to this. Since getting the tubes in her ears and going to this class, she is talking so much clearer.

For the most part spring is here (I say most part cause it's snowing today). It's a good thing too since Annie was getting major cabin fever. Two weekends ago we enjoyed the afternoon outside.

On the 11th I traveled Waltham, MA for training for my new position. Intuit's headquarters is in Mountain View, CA, however Quick Base is based in Waltham, as is the rest of the support team. Here in Utah until I was hired on support we had just the sales team. I spent 4 days there working and exploring. While there I went to Stoughton where my Grandma's (Meme) father and his family was from. His family started Deacon Plumbing, still in the same location just different building and no longer family owned. I was able to see that, the house he grew up in and his parents, and siblings headstones.

I also found the Boston temple and explored the North End with my new team mates. We ate at a place called Limoncello in Boston and stopped at Mike's Pastries for a yummy cannoli. It was great to get back and see my family again. I sure missed them!

For our last adventure we went to see Brandon's little sister Leslie and her family in the San Francisco area. They are currently stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. Never having been to Northern California we were excited! Plus we had not seen them for over 2 years! We have two nephews and a niece there.
Trevor is 5

Keaton is 2 and 1/2

and Zoey just turned a year old.

It so fun to get to know the kids and their personalities better. While there we went into the city twice. Brandon, the kids and I went on Thursday to the Ferry building to see the farmers market and explore. We took BART (the light rail) in and walked around the Embarcadero area.

Annie found a very cool sculpture of a giant bow and arrow near the Bay Bridge end-she wanted to walk there and see it. I took a video of her there-you can find that on the share site I referenced at the start of this post.

Friday we hung out on base and with the Hawkes family-we went to a park that evening. The kids has a blast.

Saturday we all went into the city-went to Pier 39 & 49. Had lunch at Boudin Sourdough and enjoyed a great walk.

We also explored the streets in our car. The kids loved the steep roads and street cars.

Sunday we drove home. We also stopped in Dayton NV to visit my cousin Star and her family both ways-we had a blast seeing the kids and stretching out legs there. It was a busy April for sure but we were glad to be able to have the adventures we did!